Sunday, 22 July 2012

TEKKEN TAG TOURNAMENT (commonly abbreviated as Tekken Tag and TTT) is the fourth installment in the popular Tekken fighting game series. It, however, is not canonical to the Tekken storyline. The game was originally available as an update kit for Tekken 3.Tekken Tag Tournament was originally released as an arcade game before it was ported to thePlayStation 2. The arcade version operated similarly, but ran on a 32 bit graphics engine like Tekken 3. It received upgraded graphics when it was ported to the PlayStation 2. It, along with Tekken 4 andSoulcalibur II, was re-released in 2008 as a part ofNamco Classic Fighter Collection. After 10 years, a sequel has been announced named Tekken Tag Tournament 2.

A remastered version of the game titled Tekken Tag Tournament HD was released for PlayStation 3 in November 2011, as part of a Tekken Hybrid disc which also includes the 3D movie, Tekken: Blood Vengeance, and a demo version of Tekken Tag Tournament 2.

GAMEPLAY

Continuing the fighting mechanics from Tekken 3,Tekken Tag sees players battling in teams of two characters. At any point in the match, the player can hit a tag button to swap out with their other fighter, allowing the resting fighter to recover some lost health. The tag can be implimented in many ways, such as inbetween combos or utilising special throws. At times when a resting fighter's is flashing, that character can be tagged in to be given a temporary boost in strength. Unlike other tag games such asCapcom's Vs. series, players are defeated when only one of their fighters lose all their health, requiring players to be strategic about tagging their fighters. In the event of a timeout, the team with the most accumulative health remaining wins the round.

The game features over 35 characters that have previously appeared in Tekken 2 and Tekken 3. In addition, there is a boss character, Unknown, who is similar to Tekken 3's Mokujin in that she can randomly imitate any character's fighting style, albeit she is able to change her style any time during the fight. The PlayStation 2 version added enhanced graphics and various modes, including 1-on-1 mode, in which players only choose one fighter each, and Team Battle, where players choose up to eight battles and play with the tag rules, with each new character replacing the one that was defeated (the remaining fighter must fight on his/her own). Also featured is "Tekken Bowl" mode, a bowlingminigame where each character has different attributes.

The only absent characters in the game that were playable in previous entries of the series are: the original Jack, King I, Kuma Sr., Marshall Law, Dr. Boskonovitch and Gon. Boskonovitch, however, makes a cameo appearance in the Tekken Bowl mode as a spectator.